The Bottom Line: Deal or Dud?

Dupli-color perfect match touch up paint.

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So you’ve got your eye on a new cleaning product that promises to rid your home of all things gross or a new nail polish that pledges to make your fingernails as tough as, well, nails. The pitch is perfect.

The price is in your budget. But does it work? Consumers always want to know, so let us tell you: We’ll try it before you buy it. The Bottom Line will highlight some of the newest and trendiest items and tell you whether it’s a deal or dud. Got a product in mind? Contact Blade reporter RoNeisha Mullen at rmullen@theblade.com or 419-724-6133.

Rain-x headlight restoration kit.

The Product: Rain-X Headlight Restoration Kit

The Pitch: Don’t replace headlights when you can restore them. The Rain-X Headlight Restoration Kit provides a deep clean to yellowed, hazed headlights with the use of a specially designed polish and sealant. The kit helps restore clear plastic by removing haze and discoloration to improve visibility with clearer headlight lenses.

The Price: $14.99 at O’Reilly Auto Parts on Monroe Street in Toledo. Also available at a number of other retailers and online.

The Bottom Line: Deal. With a little bit of elbow grease, we took our headlights from yellow to clear with this kit. The polishing pads buffed out scratches on the outside of the light, which caused dimming. The restorer wiped on and off without any resistance and the sealant gave the lights a shiny, polished look. Overall, the headlights look new and clean, brightening up the night sky for a safer driving experience.

Dupli-color perfect match touch up paint.

The Product: Dupli-Color Perfect Match Automotive Paint

The Pitch: This paint is an easy to use, high quality, fast drying, and designed to exactly match the color of the original factory-applied coating. It’s ideal for both small scale vehicle touch-up and for painting vehicle accessories.

The Price: $7.49 at O’Reilly Auto Parts.

The Bottom Line: Deal. Perfect Match was indeed a perfect match and easy to use. However, it’s messy and if you’re not careful, the finished result could look uneven and worse than it did before you started. Instead, we’d suggest the Dupli-Color Scratch Fix All-in-1 pen ($14.99 at O’Reilly). The pen is for smaller projects, but gives you more control, where as the paint, which comes in an aerosol spray, drips and runs, creating streaks and unevenness.

Contact RoNeisha Mullen at: rmullen@theblade.